While we’re just 11 games into the NBA season, there’s still plenty to take away from the action to this point. When evaluating numbers and lineups this early in the season, though, it’s almost always best to take it with a grain of salt.

Markelle Fultz has had his fair share of struggles, and that’s hard to deny based on both statistics and the eye test. But when taking a deeper dive into what’s worked and what hasn’t lineup-wise for the Philadelphia 76ers, a few things jump out. And a big part of the intrigue actually features the second-year guard.

In order to evaluate the net rating for Philly’s various five-man groups, we sorted by those with at least 10 minutes of court time together.

It’s a small sample size, but it at least offers an idea of which lineups have done well to this point for the Sixers, who have just five groups with a positive net rating thus far, per NBA Stats.

stats.nba.com

The most obvious thing that stands out is that the top lineup of Ben Simmons, JJ Redick, Robert Covington, Mike Muscala, and Joel Embiid has been far superior in every aspect. They have played the fewest minutes together, so the numbers will almost certainly even out somewhat as time rolls on.

Muscala and Redick are both a part of four of the top lineups with rookie Landry Shamet landing in two. The real eye-opener is the fact that Fultz is in four of the five, and not a single one of those is alongside Ben Simmons. This points to the fact that while Fultz hasn’t excelled, he’s been far superior when taking on ball-handling duties.

Until we have more data, this is nothing more than an interesting evaluation, but the success of lineups with Fultz not including Simmons is a big deal. Simmons leading the first unit is unquestionably the best move, but beyond that, it’s becoming apparent what the next move should be.

Sixers coach Brett Brown would be wise to consider making the change everyone hopes to see – moving Fultz out of the starting five and placing him as the primary ball-handler of the second unit.